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As Dust Settles, ‘Cowboys & Aliens’ Shoots Down ‘Smurfs’

By Brooks Barnes August 1, 2011 4:30 pmAugust 1, 2011 4:30 pm

With the last ticket counted, “Cowboys & Aliens” ended up winning the weekend box-office race by a Smurf-sized whisker.

Universal Pictures said on Monday that its Western/science-fiction mashup took in a total of $36.4 million at North American theaters, beating “The Smurfs,” which Sony Pictures Entertainment said had a final tally of $35.6 million. Estimates on Sunday had the two movies tied for No. 1 with $36.2 million.

Who won matters in terms of marketing bragging rights, but the damage has already been done in Hollywood. All the movie capital wanted to talk about on Monday morning was how the pedigreed “Cowboys & Aliens” – starring Daniel Craig and Harrison Ford, directed by Jon Favreau and produced by Brian Grazer and Steven Spielberg – got smacked around unexpectedly by Sony’s little blue men.

Given the out-of-nowhere performance of “The Smurfs” – going into the weekend analysts had predicted that the cowboys would ride to an easy win – you can’t blame its director, Raja Gosnell, for doing a victory lap.

“We got beaten up by the critics so it’s wonderful to get this kind of redemption,” Mr. Gosnell said by telephone from Belgium, where he is vacationing and which happens to be the birthplace of “The Smurfs.” “Obviously, the nostalgia factor – parents who grew up with the Smurfs and wanted to introduce them to their children – was greater than we had even imagined.”

Should the world brace itself for “Smurfs 2: Smurfalicious”? “Hopefully, yes – the goal here was very much a continuing franchise,” Mr. Gosnell said.